Choose to Challenge
International
Women’sDay
How these two women - an expat and a local did two centuries apart
The
OLIVE PRESS
Mijas Costa FREE
To celebrate International Women’s Day, we hear the inspirational stories from over a dozen expats from around the country
Andalucía
Your expat
voice in Spain
Vol. 14 Issue 364 www.theolivepress.es March 10th - March 23rd 2021
Torn down Owners demolish their own homes to escape massive fines as the Junta finally gets tough on illegal construction By Dilip Kuner
DANGER: El Palmar Landscape threatened by illegal development and (right) Len and Helen Prior dream home in the sun. Andalucia has had dozens of victims of illegal homes – including expats – who bought their villas in good faith only to see them later flattened by bulldozers. The most famous case involved British couple Helen and Len Prior who bought their villa which had planning permission from their council in Vera (Almeria). It was later deemed illegal and knocked down by the Junta as it was on land zoned as agricultural use only. It took 10 years of court battles before the retired couple finally received €236,000 compensation from Vera council in 2018. With an estimated 300,000 illegal properties in the region, the Junta has in recent years introduced measures to help victims legalise their homes. The majority though have been left in a ‘legal limbo’ with many left unsaleable. At least under new edicts brought in since
the Junta was taken over by the PP in 2019 less problems are being created. Indeed, in 2020 there were 95% more inspections undertaken and 300% more probes into shady developers, with so far €4million in fines levied. One key seaside town that is benefitting is El Palmar, in Cadiz, where fines of more than €600,000 have been slapped on the owners of any plot with a prefabricated house. The area was badly affected when an area of 500 hectares of agricultural land was effectively subdivided into hundreds of plots between 500sqm and 1,000sqm by speculators. A total of 16 cases were launched against people advertising development plots for sale on agricultural land. Most were tracked down via online adverts, many on social media. “It’s great they are finally clamping down and I’m in total agreement,” said local hotel owner James Stuart, from the Califa group in nearby Vejer. “So many houses do not have licences and the area just does not have the right infrastructure to support it all.” He added: “Thankfully there are ALL AREAS COVERED quite a few areas still totally untouched by development.” The Junta’s Minister of Develop4G UNLIMITED ment, Marifran Carazo, stressed she INTERNET is determined to fight the proliferaIDEAL FOR tion of illegal buildings. STREAMING TV “What is the point of passing a decree to legalize irregular housing ALSO IPTV, that was in legal limbo for decades SATELLITE TV if we allow these new types of illegal building in. We are not going to tel: (0034) 952 763 840 allow it.”
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OWNERS of illegal homes have started to tear them down to try and escape massive fines of over €600,000. It comes after the Junta finally got tough on illegal homes, doubling the number of inspections and tripling its prosecutions against unscrupulous speculators. In a landmark year for the environment, there were double the number of inspections around Andalucia in 2020. Some 1,087 constructions were probed, while 75 investigations were launched into developers looking to cash in from holiday rentals and joint ownership schemes. So sharp was the rise that owners voluntarily knocked down their properties before getting fined in ‘almost all’ of Andalucia’s eight provinces. A number of homes have been voluntarily knocked down in El Palmar, as well as in Oria, Alcolea del Rio, Iznajar and Algatocin, revealed the Junta this week. The move is being seen as vital to stop dodgy developers before they can sell on the properties to unsuspecting people looking for a
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Opinion Page 6
...with an introduction from our British consul in Andalucia, Charmaine Arbouin
...and introducing our new Digital Editor, Fiona Govan, in Madrid All inside our International Women’s Day special supplement
A special four-page pullout
March 2021
www.theolivepress.es
CAPTION TO GO HERE
I
One in five Spanish women gave up work due to the COVID crisis, while they also poorer and harder are than men, writes Olive working Press Digital Editor Fiona Govan
FOR INTERNATIONAL WOMEN´S
LONG WAY TO GO
N previous years March 8 a day when I would meetwas grandparents to toddlers hoisted with a group of friends up on shoulders, came together in a we would hit the streets and sea of purple brandishing signs of Ma- with powerful drid joining tens of thousands slogans to show others to mark International of that modern Spain means equal Wo- opportunities, whatever men’s Day. gender you are. We would don purple items of But the demonstrations clothing and join in the also unprotests derlined how that attracted people much there was from all still to do; women walks of life and across may now be the nerations – both men and ge- fully accepted in the workplace wo- but they are still men, boys and girls. penalised by a There was a carnival atmosphe- gender pay gap, which is not im- men is still recognised as a major proving fast enough. re as people of all ages, problem in Spain and the from Meanwhile violence we are against wo- witnessing the rise of the try’s political far right and counwith it a denial of gender inequalities. This year with Spain still in the grip of the pandemic, are no mass protests withthere thorities banning gatheringsauto avoid potential super-spreader events, but the health crisis has highlighted and even compounded some of the inequalities in society. Working from home has seen a steep rise in mental health issues with women bearing the of the burden of childcarebrunt and housework as they try to balance work life with home-schooling and care for their elderly relatives.
Pics are on the wall
See inside
A SMALL village in ed the skills of twodeep inland Malaga has enlistwhitewashed walls local artists to transform the into a tribute to rural across the ages. women In a project entitled rapher Ana Becerra ‘Saucedeñas’, Ronda photogtaken to Villanueva and artist Selector Marx have Residents awoke lastdel Rosario. week to large scale white collages of images black of local rural women and blazoned on walls of em“The women on the municipal buildings. are entrepreneurs, photographs are women who who cultivated creativity had a history of self-improvement” or who said Becerra.
When Spain went into lockdown a year ago, gender violence soared with the authorities reporting an 18% rise in calls ring the first fortnight alone. duA survey conducted by DYM in
DAY...
Important day Charmaine Arbouin, British Consul for Andalusia, Canary Islands, Ceuta & Melilla. Based in
women in managerial positions Malaga she covers remains around a third of that of the region of Spain men with the numbers dropping even further as careers progress. that has the largest Spain’s female executives concentration of British 15.1 percent less than their earn residents counterparts, although this male below the EU average is just salary gap of 16 percent according “International Women’s the latest EU data from 2017. to Day is an opportunity the run up to Women’s to Day this This inequality is highlighted celebrate the achieveyear revealed that 7% of in women the statement issued ments of women - both had suffered physical or by psycho- government on March Spain’s past and present; those logical abuse from men 8: “Woduring men in Spain work who have shaped 2020. more than and transformed our world, men today, but And most alarwhether that be politithey are poorer.” mingly of all, accally or in the fields Of course there cording to the laFIVE LINERS science and culture. of are still reasons test data, women it’s also a moment toBut xxxxxxx to be positive remade up 93% of flect on what still needs and to celebrate those who gave xxxxxxxxx to be done and that’s just how far woup employment why this year’s theme xxxxxxxx men have come during 2020 in of Choose to Challenge in Spain. Spain... citing camatters. We must xxxxxxxxx all Spain may not ring for minors, choose to call out bias have had a feand inequality, so that elderly or sick remale prime we have even more great latives as the main reasons. nister but it has the largest mifemale achievers to That is one in five women, share accor- of women in any European ebrate in the future.” celding to a survey by online lecom- gislature with women munity MalasMadres. representing 47 percent of elected During the second quarter MPs, of last a bigger proportion year, a period that coincided of female with lawmakers than even Sweden. Spain’s strict lockdown 61,000 More than half of Pedro women gave up their jobs to chez’s cabinet comprises Sancare for others compared woto just men – each one impressively 6,500 men. qualified for their role – And when it comes to with wothe kplace itself, the proportionwor- men holding key ministerial poof sitions including Foreign Minister and Health Minister. We’ve come a long way the end of the dictatorship since a woman had to have when her father’s or husband’s permission to travel and couldn’t open a bank account. But there’s no room for complacency, we still have a long long way to go.
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